Repeat
by weirdgrammar
Summary: Kuroko is aware he's not a good listener.


**Title: **Repeat.  
**Pairing(s): **AoKaga.  
**Warning: **Future fic. Characdeath. Grammartical errors, and simple language.

* * *

**[ Repeat ]**

.

.

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"Aomine-kun."

"Hey, Tetsu, is Taiga still angry at me?"

Aomine is sitting on the couch, staring ahead at the wall.

Kuroko doesn't answer, closing the door behind him.

"Hey, answer me, Tetsu."

"... I don't believe so."

"Then why he doesn't answer my calls?"

A blue cell phone lay on the couch, and Aomine is looking at it.

Kuroko keeps staring at him vacuously, putting on his blank look.

"Answer me, Tetsu!"

This time, harsher.

Kuroko takes a seat across the couch. "He's...busy, perhaps."

"Ah, maybe you're right. Busy putting out a blaze," says Aomine. "Hey, Tetsu, tomorrow is Taiga's birthday, right?"

Kuroko doesn't reply.

"What are you, a doll?" Aomine scolds him.

"Don't you recall anything, Aomine-kun?"

"Recall what?" Aomine turns to him, brows are knitted in disapproval. "About yesterday? Fuck it, Tetsu. I know it was my fault making Taiga upset, and I regret it! So, stop talking about it!"

"Aomine-kun, that was—"

"—I'm sorry, okay?! And I'm going to meet him tomorrow to say sorry. Propose him even! Satisfied?!"

"...you want to propose Kagami-kun?"

His light blue eyes fall on the small red velvet box on the table.

Aomine smirks again. "Yeah, so that idiot knows I'm dead serious. So, Taiga believes I love him only. Sounds like a plan, huh?"

"...yes, Aomine-kun. He'll be happy."

"Yeah, he will," Aomine chuckles. "Oh, by the way, how's your wedding planning going? Bet Satsuki goes excited about it days and nights."

"It's going just fine."

"Take care of Satsuki, 'kay? Inform us when she gets pregnant. Taiga is so excited about being a godfather or something like that."

"Of course, Aomine-kun."

"Wonderful," he grins, then his face morphs into an accusing look. "Hey, Tetsu, did Taiga send you here to check on me?"

"No."

"Great," Aomine heaves a sigh. "Don't tell him about this propose thing, 'kay? I want to surprise him."

"Sure, Aomine-kun."

Aomine rubs the nape of his neck nervously. "Actually, I don't know how to propose him. Should I ask him out on a date, or should I just ambush him and shove him the wedding ring in his face?"

"Do you need my help, Aomine-kun?"

Aomine looks at him with his piercing navy eyes, and shrugs his shoulders. "Guess so."

"Then, mind giving me your phone for awhile?"

"Why?" he gives Kuroko his phone nonetheless.

"Nothing," Kuroko browses to the date setting, punches the buttons, and keeps it out of Aomine's reach.

Then, Kuroko stays with Aomine, helping him make plan, watching Aomine rhapsodize over his propose plan with a blank look on his face.

* * *

Kuroko places a bouquet of red lilies by the grave. A cold wind slices through few strands of light blue fringes, through the red lilies.

Two sets of footsteps comes walking after him.

"Tetsu-kun," says a feminine voice.

He turns around.

"Satsuki-san."

A young girl with pink hair dashes up to him, and hugs his legs.

He smiles.

"Papa~"

"Sakura."

"Papa, how's Kagamin doing?" asks the little girl in her weird childish accent.

He looks at the grave.

"Fine."

"Dai-chan?"

He can't answer his daughter's question.

* * *

The next day, Kuroko comes visiting Aomine again after receiving a phone call from him.

In fact, he's been doing it every day for past five years.

"Aomine-kun."

"Hey, Tetsu, is Taiga still angry at me?"

Aomine is sitting on the couch, staring ahead at the wall.

He's expected to see Aomine in that rigid position, with eyes fixated on the wall. He heaves a sigh, closing the door behind him.

"No, Aomine-kun."

"Then why he doesn't answer my calls?"

Kuroko feels his head throb hearing the same question spill out of Aomine's mouth. He looks at the table, expecting to see the blue cell phone laying there.

It's there.

With the small red velvet box.

"He's busy, I guess."

"Ah, maybe you're right. Busy putting out a blaze," says Aomine. "Hey, Tetsu, tomorrow is Taiga's birthday, right?"

"Aomine-kun?"

"What?"

A new reaction from Aomine. It strays from Aomine's routine, and Kuroko is aware of it, but he keeps quiet.

"Don't you recall anything, Aomine-kun?"

"Recall what?" Aomine turns to him, brows are knitted in disapproval. "About yesterday? Fuck it, Tetsu. I know it was my fault—"

Aomine stops talking.

He _can't_ talk.

He can't talk when Kuroko suddenly grabs him by his wrist and yanks him up from the couch. Aomine feels the grip around his wrist tighten as Kuroko drags him out of his house to his car. His mouth opens, but no words come out.

Then, Kuroko pushes him into the car, shuts the door close, slides to the driver seat, and drives off.

Aomine's brain functions again.

"Where are you taking me, Tetsu?"

Kuroko stays his focus on the road.

"Answer me, Tetsu!"

Kuroko rounds the corner, heading off the neighborhood.

"TETSU!"

"Just look outside, Aomine-kun."

Aomine brings his gaze out of the window. Tall buildings, traffic lights, pedestrians greet him. The view seems so foreign in his eyes. He's never seen them before. And that new shop rows, since when they've been there?

A new place, he guesses.

"Where are we?"

"Still in Tokyo."

"You've gotta be shitting me. This ain't Tokyo."

"Yes, it is, Aomine-kun."

The car skirts around the city, zooming past the skyscrapers, and is pulled over when a vast, grayish, lifeless cemetery comes into the view.

Aomine is in a dither about opening the door that Kuroko has to open it for him.

"Come," says Kuroko shortly.

Aomine doesn't move.

Exasperated, Kuroko pulls Aomine out of the car by his wrist again, and leads their way to the cemetery. His hand hurts when Aomine puts up some protests, but he couldn't care less anymore. He resumes his walking.

When Aomine's right foot touches the ground of the cemetery, his mouth is zipped. He scans his surrounding with pounding heart.

This is not right. Not right at all, he thinks to himself.

Wordlessly, they shuffle past grave after grave. And Aomine stops when Kuroko stops, standing before a grave. Kuroko takes a step backward with head hung low.

"What is this, Tetsu?" Aomine stares at the grave.

"Kagami-kun's grave."

There is a silence before Aomine asks again. "What?"

"Kagami-kun's grave," he speaks louder.

"This joke is crazy and you're a bad liar, Tetsu. No way—"

"—Kagami-kun is already dead!" he shouts at the top of his voice, tired of this entire façade.

Aomine shoots him a suspicious look. "No, you're lying."

"It's the truth, Aomine-kun."

"No, you're lying."

"It _is_ the truth."

"No, you're fucking lying, Tetsu! I just spoke to him last night. We got into fi—"

"—Five years ago, Aomine-kun!"

Aomine freezes to his spot.

"It's been five years, Aomine-kun," says Kuroko, clenching his sweaty fist. "He's been passed away for five years. I've even married to Satsuki-san, and got a daughter named Sakura," he shows Aomine his wedding ring.

The navy eyes trails to the ring, then back to Kuroko's soothing blue eyes.

"Five years?"

"Yes, Aomine-kun, five years. Look at the name."

Aomine peers closer. He didn't notice at first because he's not an observant. He didn't notice at first because it's blur. But, when he peers closely, he can see it.

He can read it.

It's blurry, but Aomine can read the strokes. And he knows them.

Knows them too well, as he specially craved them on the wedding ring that he's planning on slipping to Kagami's ring finger _tomorrow_.

_Kagami Taiga._

"No... This can't be happening. I...spoke to him last night. We had a fight, then Taiga slammed the door in my face. And tomorrow is Taiga's birthday. And I'm—what happened, Tetsu? Tell me. I don't know. TELL ME!"

He looks up at Kuroko, looking absolutely miserable.

Kuroko walks up to him, and places a soothing hand on Aomine's shoulder. "You both had a fight, the next day you locked up yourself in your house, here. Then, I came after you'd called me to come over, you said you were going to propose him as an apology."

"Did I...did I really propose him?"

"The next day, on Kagami-kun's birthday, yes, you did, Aomine-kun."

"And Taiga?"

"He...said yes. With tears and all. I was happy as well. But it didn't last long."

"What happened?"

"You both got into a tragic automotive accident. You sustained severe injuries on your head and body, few broken bones, and you went into a coma for few months," Kuroko pauses briefly, taking a deep pained breath. "While Kagami-kun...he didn't make it to the hospital."

Aomine stares at him, looks at him with his widened navy eyes, probably for the longest time Kuroko remember, mouth gaped open. He brings his gaze down, then darts around the cemetery, in denials.

Kuroko's voice drops. "When you woke up from the coma, you asked about Kagami-kun. So, Midorima-kun thought you were suffering from amnesia, when actually it was worse than that."

"What was it, then?"

"Anterograde amnesia. You've lost the ability to create new memories, couldn't recall the recent past, while your long-term memories remain intact. In your case, you've forgotten about the accident, and think Kagami-kun is still alive. Midorima-kun first noticed this when I told him you repeated the same conversation we'd had the day before. And it repeated over and over again."

"I... Repeat?"

His tanned hand mindlessly roams around his head, then jolts in shock when he feels the remnant of the wound. Aomine shoots him a denial look.

"Yes, Aomine-kun. You've been saying and doing the same thing for past four years."

"And I wasn't aware of it at all?"

Aomine's voice cracks.

"No, unless you were told about it, like what I'm doing to you now."

Aomine's face contorts in pain.

"So, we've had this discussion before?"

"Yes, Aomine-kun. Many times."

"But, I don't remember about it at all!"

"Like I said, you've lost the ability to create new memories. You won't remember anything that occurs after the accident."

"No...no way... This..."

Aomine buries his face in his hands, then drags them over his face in an attempt to get rid of the nightmare, but the feeling of his calloused hands reminds him of the reality. A sob escapes him as he falls to his knees.

"...five years, Tetsu... And I don't know about it at all. Tetsu, I... I don't know... I was going to propose him, saying I'm sorry, saying how much I love him... And he's gone... I..."

Kuroko envelops him in his small embrace, pulling his head closer to his chest. Kuroko feels a large hand tug on his shirt, and more warm tears wet his chest.

Kuroko stays with Aomine the whole day, accompanying him in the car, at his place, until he falls asleep in Kuroko's arms on the couch.

Before leaving, Kuroko takes his phone, and sets the date back to July 31st.

Just in case.

* * *

"I heard from your wife you went to Aomine's place again yesterday," says Midorima into his favorite canned red bean drink.

Kuroko stares at his vanilla shake on the cocoa-colored table vacantly. The silence of the cafe is so deafening that he feels uncomfortable.

"And you brought him to Kagami's grave. Did it work?"

Kuroko remains silent.

"I take it as 'no', then."

"We don't know _yet_, Midorima-kun."

Midorima breathes a sigh. "No matter how hard you try it, Kuroko, it's completely useless. Even if Aomine's case isn't extreme, anterograde amnesia has no cure—"

"—'isn't extreme' you say?" Kuroko shoots him a sharp look. "He's still thinking Kagami-kun is still alive. And he's been repeating the same thing over years, and you say 'isn't extreme'?"

Midorima remains composed at Kuroko's sudden outburst. Kuroko scarcely snaps, so Midorima knows Aomine's condition has finally taken on its toll on Kuroko's endurance.

"The fact that he's not suffering from both anterograde and retrograde amnesia in the same time, and doesn't forget every 20 seconds prove his case isn't extreme."

"Stop comparing him with other cases, Midorima-kun."

"I'll stop if and only you stop clinging to hopes, Kuroko. You know his condition more than I do as a doctor. I know you've tried different approaches, not coming for few weeks, letting him watch those stupid tapes, and such, and see what happened? Back to zero. You should know it better than anyone else."

Kuroko's gaze drops back to the vanilla shake. He watches morosely droplets of water run down and pool around the drink.

The truth is he's stopped drinking vanilla shake since the accident occurred. It doesn't taste the same anymore. The accident has taken the sweet taste of vanilla shake, his happiness, Kagami's life.

And Aomine's life.

"Visit him again later?"

It's a rhetorical question. Kuroko doesn't need to answer that.

"Stop cling to the hope, Kuroko."

Not an advice, but an order, and Kuroko knows it.

He just can't help it.

* * *

Aomine calls him again to come over, so Kuroko goes to Aomine's place.

But, this time, he waits a few minutes before the door before knocking it, thinking it may stray from Aomine's routine, thus waking him up from this misery.

He clasps the knob, and turns it.

"Aomine-kun?"

The door creaks open, and he finds Aomine sitting on the couch, staring ahead at the wall.

A deafening silence hangs in the air. His heart is thumping furiously against the confines of his ribcage.

"Hey, Tetsu, is Taiga still angry at me?"

His heart crushes.

In a bitter tone, he replies. The same answer he's been repeating for past five years.

"... I don't believe so."

.

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**[ Repeat ]**

* * *

**A/N: **Because the truth is ugly. Amnesia is overrated in opera soaps and actually devastating to watch.

(And yes, Deadpool-kun's genre has rubbed on me.)

Don't kick me out of this fandom!


End file.
